The Cognition Of Korea Envoys To The Western World (17~th-19~th Century)

Under the tributary system，the Korean dynasty have to dispatch batches of regular ornon-periodical missions to China every year. The envoys left us a large number of travel notesabout China, and these notes which we can see today are called “Yeon Heng Rok”.The “YeonHeng Rok” had recorded many envoys’ descriptions about the organization system of catholicchurch,the painting and murals in the church、striking clock、organ、astronomical instrumentas well as the envoys’ reaction and attitude to the western scenes which they have neverseen in the process of visiting catholic church. At the same time, The “Yeon Heng Rok” alsorecorded the envoys’ impression to the western missionaries as well as the situation theyexchanged western astronomy、geography、mathematical and Catholicism with the westernmissionaries in the catholic church. This thesis mainly relies on the above materials in the“Yeon Heng Rok”, meanwhile refers to “The Annals of The Choson”、“The Annals of Qing”and some Korean envoys’ individual essays and so on. The article focuses on the Koreanenvoys’ western story and impression of China, through studying the envoys to the church、painting、murals、western missionaries、Catholic、western astronomy、striking clock、organof the response、description and understanding that outlined17-19thcentury the westernimpression they formed in Bei Jing of China, as well as envoys’ cognitive process and attitudetoward western world particularly Catholicism. The main content of the paper composes ofthree parts：Chapter one makes a discussion of the Korean envoys. First of all，the establishment ofKorea and Ming-Qing tribute system are combed, and then introduced the Korea envoysincluding theirs name、types、how they were composed and so on. The second, a generaloverview of the Korea envoys’ cultural exchange activities in Beijing during the Ming andqing dynasties and its influence on Korean society is presended..Chapter two discusses how the Korean envoys touched with western missionaries inBeijing. This chapter has two parts, the first part expounds the understanding of Koreadynasty to the western world and the contact of Korea envoys and western missionariesduring the period of late Ming dynasty. The second part discusses the contact of Korea envoysand western missionaries after the central plains into the Qing dynasty. At last,it is concludedthat the relaxation of access control system in Kangxi last year and the envoys’ curious aboutthe church and Catholicism are the primary cause that envoys can contact with westernmissionaries directly and widely.Chapter three analyses the western cognition of Korea envoys. First of all, starting fromthe external phenomenon to discussed envoys’ western perceptions in Beijing：Analyse theenvoys to catholic church、painting and murals’ reactions and attitude, as well as the westernmissionaries image in envoys’ eyes. Secondly, from the external western impression ofenvoys into the deep level stage to Catholicism questioning and search，then analysis of envoys over and over again under the subtle influence and shaken of the external image,through the exchange of western missionaries、the Qing dynasty scholars, underwent whatkind of process to the cognition of Catholicism, simultaneously formed what kind ofCatholicism idea. Finally, to introduce the envoys and western missionaries’ communicationsuch as astronomy、the envoys’ cognition of striking clock、organ and so on. Point out that，although the envoys have mostly been subbdued by the pageantry of catholic church、westernpainting of vivid lifelike and the spirit of sacrificent of western missionaries. However，because of the deep influence of Confucianism，most of the envoys hold a negative attitude tothe western painting brushwork、picture of religious figures in the western painting andCatholicism. While approves to the western advanced science and technology knowledge，andtook a positive attitude and proactive in learning and introducing.